When a judge dies in office, there isn’t much to be done about who gets to select a new judge to fill their seat. But when a judge retires, as with a Supreme Court justice, or takes senior status as is more usual with district and circuit judges, political choices are made. Whether this was always the case or a more recent phenomenon is beyond my pay grade, but it’s surely the case now.

Indeed, the beloved Notorious RBG was castigated for not retiring during President Obama’s tenure so that her replacement upon her death was chosen by Darth Cheeto. Similarly, Justice Breyer was the target of extreme pressure to retire for the good of the team while Biden was president and the Dems held Congress so that his replacement would be chosen by a Democratic president and confirmed rather than Garlanded. Continue reading →

Ross Douthat realizes that he’s caught in a culture war trap. He says as much.

This uniquely American climate also raises uncomfortable questions for the few conservatives, like myself, who enjoy a substantial liberal readership. You will notice that I have written this essay in a studiously cautious style, on the theory that as I am in fact a known social conservative, my too-vigorous prosecution of the skeptics’ case would serve only to reinforce the current progressive orthodoxy — enabling the response that, see, to doubt the wisdom of puberty blockers or the authenticity of teenage self-identification is the province of Catholics, religious conservatives, the out-group.

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Just this. Nothing more. I thought you should know.

https://twitter.com/AndyGrewal/status/1514176879846170626

So many of you were kind enough, concerned enough, to contribute to Protect Misha and rightfully wonder where your money went. While it would be extremely unwise to provide any advance notice of what David was doing, I can now tell you that he delivered 120 vests, more than two tons of body armor, to Ukraine yesterday. David sent back some pics of the delivery.

The fellow in the carefully chosen orange tie and pants outfit is David’s partner in this endeavor, Kay.

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One of the ubiquitous warnings is that human beings are invariably imaginative in the ways they cross lines no one would ever expect to be crossed. “Who would do such a thing?” is the obvious refrain when someone comes up with an outlandish act for which the law has no good answer. And then someone does it, or some variation of it, and the law is found lacking.

Midland County, Texas, assistant district attorney Ralph Petty did such a thing, though not without the willing complicity of Judge John Hyde, who died in 2012. What he did was unfathomable, except to Petty and Hyde. Continue reading →

When Chris Rock made the G.I. Jane 2 joke that launched a thousand op-eds, one issue that arose was that men do not make fun of black women’s hair. Not women in general. Black women. They are, apparently, particularly sensitive about the issue of hair. I recall one of the women of The View explaining that she had a room in her mansion just for her wigs. She was black. This was a source of some hilarity, but likely only because she raised it.

This sensitivity gave rise to the New York City Human Rights Commission holding it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of black hairstyles. But that was New York City, where silliness abounds and they get what they deserve. Except what of the federal CROWN Act? Continue reading →

There was no serious question among serious people that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was qualified to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court. She was no Bork. She was no Thomas. Efforts to Kavanaugh her were ridiculous to anyone with any knowledge and experience in law. What she was not was ideologically conservative, even though she’s quite clearly within the mainstream of judicial philosophy.

That means she wasn’t the person a Republican president would pick, which is fine but for the fact that Biden is a Democrat, Biden is president and you ran Trump as your candidate and got what you deserved. A loss. So you don’t get to pick the person you prefer and Biden does. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Continue reading →

On Friday, Lizelle Herrera, 26, was arrested by the Starr County, Texas, sheriff for committing a “self-induced abortion.” On Saturday, Frontera Fund, an abortion rights group, paid her $500,000 bail. On Sunday, Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez announced he will move to dismiss the indictment.

“It is my hope that with the dismissal of this case it is made clear that Ms. Herrera did not commit a criminal act under the laws of the state of Texas,” Mr. Ramirez said.

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From Millennials to Zoomers, the telephone is hated. There are, of course, the usual reasons, that too many calls are spam or robo crap, which can be weeded out by only answering calls when the Caller ID tells you it’s someone you know. But much as there are some collateral excuses, the fact remains that they hate talking on the phone. Given that my generation might share their annoyance of calls, but feels no dread and loathing at the thought of speaking directly to another human being, I wondered why.

So I asked. Continue reading →

We decided on a burger for dinner last night, so Five Guys it was. Dr. SJ did the ordering and, when she was done, informed me that my personal favorite, the bacon cheeseburger, was now $12.39. What? I quickly checked the google machine, and a website updated as of April, 2022, said it costs $8.69. But on the Five Guys online ordering website for the store by me, it was most definitely $12.39.

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